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STORY: UN / COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE
TRT: 2.04
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 24 MAY 2013, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
24 MAY 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, dais
3. Med shot, journalist
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigel Rodley, Chair Human Rights Committee:
“It is extremely frustrating, we have, in the Human Rights Committee, we have a pre-sessional working group of the week that can normally deal with thirty odd complaints in any given session, so that’s getting on for a hundred per year, except that the Secretariat isn’t able to process the information coming in in a way that we can then take it forward with a view of finalizing a decision on the case, sort of a judgment that we call views. And that is just that the Secretariat does not have the resources.”
5. Wide shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Malcolm Evans, Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture:
“Ratification and participation in the system are not necessarily the same thing. Whilst it’s important for States to ratify, it is equally important that they then fully participate in the system in accordance with the obligations they undertake.”
7. Close up, photographer
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Claudio Grossman, the Chairperson of the Committee against Torture and the Chair of the 25th Meeting of Human Rights Treaty Bodies:
“Unfortunately the Syrian authorities did not cooperate with us but that did not deter the Committee to do what this committee can do; present a credible narrative on the basis of conventional obligations and good sources and good information of what’s going on in a given country.”
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigel Rodley, Chair Human Rights Committee:
“I am particularly unhappy to see that for the second time – he was invited a year ago and then the decision, the invitation, was postponed and it happened again this year. It’s a very troubling situation and it’s hard to think of good positive reasons why they should do this.”
10. Med shot, journalist
11. Wide shot, dais
At the end of the annual meeting of the human rights treaty bodies of the United Nations, the Chairs of the ten human right committees briefed journalists today (24 May) on the outcome of the conference.
The Chair of the Human Rights Committee, Nigel Rodley, expressed frustration at the lack of resources in the Secretariat to follow up human rights complaints.
Rodley explained that the Committee can deal to up to one hundred complaints on a given year, but “the Secretariat isn’t able to process the information coming in in a way that we can then take it forward with a view of finalizing a decision on the case.”
The Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, Malcolm Evans, said that more countries are ratifying human rights treaties, but pointed out that “ratification and participation in the system are not necessarily the same thing.”
He added that “whilst it’s important for States to ratify, it is equally important that they then fully participate in the system in accordance with the obligations they undertake.”
Speaking of specific cases, the Chairperson of the Committee against Torture, Claudio Grossman, who is also the Chair of the Meeting, said that “unfortunately” the Syrian authorities had not cooperated with the Committee in its investigation of the ongoing conflict.
Grossman said that this “did not deter the Committee to do what this committee can do; present a credible narrative on the basis of conventional obligations and good sources and good information of what’s going on in a given country.”
Turning to Bahrain, Rodley, said he was “particularly unhappy” that for the second time a United Nations assessment team that was supposed to discuss the judicial system and accountability for present and past human rights abuses, had its invitation revoked by the Government.
The Chair of the Human Rights Committee said it was “a very troubling situation and it’s hard to think of good positive reasons why they should do this.”
Human rights treaty bodies are committees of independent experts that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties. Each State party to a treaty has an obligation to take steps to ensure that everyone in the State can enjoy the rights set out in the treaty.
There are ten human rights treaty bodies composed of independent experts of recognized competence in human rights, who are nominated and elected for fixed renewable terms of four years by State parties
